Reading 00: Introduction
Hi my name is Noelle Rosa and I am a senior Computer Science major. I grew up with two brothers in Westfield, New Jersey, not too far outside of New York City. People always give NJ a hard time but I would just like to point put that I grew up 45 minutes from the beach, 45 minutes from the mountains, and 45 minutes from the city and not too many people can say the same. Outside of school and vouching for New Jersey, I love playing and watching ice hockey. I am the president of the Women’s club team here on campus which is a ton of fun and allows me to continue playing a sport that I have played since I was 5 years old. I am a huge NY Rangers fan and try to make it to MSG for as many games as possible when I am home for breaks. I also love listening to stand up comedians, playing volleyball with my friends, and cooking (I should note that I am a very Italian vegetarian so about 90% of what is cook is pasta based).
I applied to the Engineering School at Notre Dame because I had always been good at math and science and engineering just seemed like the thing to do (also engineering job prospects looked good). I had no real concept of what each engineering discipline entailed or what jobs might come out of each major. I knew absolutely nothing about coding but I took to Matlab in the Intro to Engineering course freshman year and assumed that was what all of Computer Science was like (silly me). Another big reason I ended up choosing CS was my total inability to make big decisions. When choosing a major I had no idea what type of career I wanted (to be honest, I probably still don’t) and I looked at CS as the most widely applicable degree across tons of jobs and industries.
I sometimes feel like I am one of the least “in the know” computer science majors with regards to things going on in the tech world. I am not very good about reading tech blogs and often don’t know about the new technologies or big stories. One of the things I am hoping to get out of this class is a better understanding of those things. Individually I am hoping to develop stronger habits to keep up to date on tech issues, particularly the ethical ones, in the future.
I think one of the most pressing ethical issue computer scientists need to be thinking about is how job automation is going to affect the work force. We talked about this a bit on Tuesday with regards to truck drivers being replaced by self-driving cars but we can see technology eliminating jobs in all areas of the workforce. It is important for engineers to consider where to draw the line on automation. Beyond the taking jobs issue, replacing human workers with technology is often times harder for people with unique needs. I would be very interested in discussing those issues this semester. I would also love to talk about how technology can help and/or hinder special needs individuals, and I would love to discuss how CS education in schools has grown and will continue to change.
